Aristotle’s Metaphysics
Content outline:
·
Introduction
·
Summary
of the 14 books
·
Sources
for additional reading
·
Applications
to biomedicine
·
Discussion
questions
Introduction
Aristotle was
the student of Plato. He was a master systematizer. His efforts to classify and
categorize don’t stop with nature, in the works entitled metaphysics he
theorizes on what makes humans human.
Metaphysics is
fourteen books of Aristotle’s writings that were later grouped together by editor(s).
Scholars postulate that what we now know as Metaphysics were actually lecture
notes. With this in mind the disjointed ordering of topics and the extremely
compressed delivery of ideas makes more sense. Aristotle never actually uses the term ‘metaphysics’ in
his writings, instead a first century editor(s) evidently coined the name,
where ‘metaphysics’—literally means ‘after the Physics’.
Aristotle does
describe ‘first philosophies’ though, which are principles of the most
fundamental or at the highest level of generality – they are the most abstract
and should be studied after studied nature (which is the subject matter of the Physics).
This is in contrast to second philosophy, which is the study of nature.
More
specifically the works of metaphysics focus on “the study of being qua being’ where qua means ‘in so far
as’ or “in its capacity
as” - more simply the
study of things that can be said to be.
In Categories,
Aristotle defines fundamental categories of being: substance, quantity,
quality, relation, location, time, position, possession, doing, and undergoing
– but he doesn’t define an all-encompassing definition of being – this is what
metaphysics endeavors to accomplish.
Each academic discipline
studies a certain aspect of a topic – for example lets think about humans. Biologists study humans in their capacity as
living organisms, psychologists study humans in their capacity as beings with
minds and consciousness, and anthropologists study humans in their capacity as
social beings. A metaphysician, by contrast, would study humans in their
capacity as beings that exist. More succinctly put - metaphysics investigates
the reason that there should be being at all, whereas the other sciences study
the reasons behind various manifestations of being. So basically fundamentally
understanding what makes humans human – answers that are immutable, and independent of matter.
SUMMARY OF THE 14 BOOKS
The reading
provided by Dr Rice is Book A, chapters 1&2 of the metaphysics works. There
are 13 more books that are summarized below.
1. Book I (alpha) First Causes and Principles
v
Animals
live by appearance and memory whereas humans live by art and reason
v
Knowledge
consists of particular truths that we learn through experience and the general
truths of art and science.
v
Wisdom
consists in understanding the most general truths of all, which are the
fundamental principles and causes that govern everything. Wisdom is not known
by the senses or experience.
v
Knowing the
cause trumps experience.
v
Science of the
primary causes (how things are) can be divided into four explanations:
1. Substance - what a thing
is made of
2. Material - the form a
thing assumes
3. Guiding principles - the
process by which it came into being
4. The purpose it serves
2. Book II (small alpha or alpha the lesser) Principles of Physics and Methods
v
The
method of study depends on the subject being studied and the aptitude of the
investigator
v
Math
is the best method, but not suitable for all studies
v
Philosophy is
theoretical science of truth.
3. Book III (Beta) is a series of questions that are extreme positions to be
used as teaching tools to better understand metaphysics.
[http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/rfield/nwcourses/570/beta.pdf]
4. Book IV (Gamma): On Being and First Principles
v
This is a deep
dive into investigation being itself.
Ø
More
specifically ‘being qua being’ amounts to the search into first
principles and causes.
Ø
“For
some things are called beings because they are substances, other because they
are attributes of substances, others because they are a road to substances”
v
The
principle of noncontradiction is introduced- nothing can both be something and
not be that same something
v
The
concept of the excluded middle
Ø
There
is no middle position between two contradictory positions
Ø
thing
is either x or not-x, and there is no third possibility
[http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/Metaphysics.pdf]
5. Book V Delta: approximately 40 critical
terms and definitions
[source of terms: http://dhspriory.org/thomas/Metaphysics5.htm
]
6. Book VI Epsilon: Categorizing the sciences and accidents
v
Science can be
either productive, practical or theoretical
v
In
addition to physics and mathematics there are theoretical sciences like
theology, which studies first principles causes, and the eternal.
v
4 ways of being:
accidental being, being as truth, the category of
being, and being in actuality and potentiality.
v
Accidental
being covers the kinds of properties that are not essential to a thing
described. Accidental being must have a kind of accidental causation, which we
might associate with chance.
[http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.6.vi.html]
7. Book VII Zeta: The Substance
v
17 chapters that
address substance (ousia)
v
Four
possible candidates for describing the substance of something
1.
essence:
the what it is; virtue of itself
2.
universal:
are definable and in contrast to particulars
3.
genus:
in the scientific sense
4.
substratum:
matter of an object is the
stuff that makes it up, whereas the form is the shape that stuff takes.
a.
matter
(the bronze)
b.
shape
(the plan of the form of bronze)
c.
the
compound of matter and shape (the bronze statue)
[sources: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-metaphysics/#Cat
; http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/zetaoutl.htm
; http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/Metaphysics.pdf]
8. Book VIII Eta: summary of zeta
9. Book IX Theta potentiality and actuality of change
·
Potentiality: a
principle of change in another thing, identifies with matter
·
Actuality: the
completed state of something that had the potential to be completed, identifies
with form
o
all
potentialities must eventually be realized: if a potentiality never becomes an
actuality, then we do not call it a potentiality but an impossibility.
o
Rational:
change initiated by a rational agent, can produce opposites
o
Irrational:
happens naturally
v
Actions
§
incomplete: actions do not contain their purpose, part of
a process
§
complete:
end in itself
10. Book X Iota: unity and contrary attributes
·
Unity
is not a substance
o
it
is a universal, not a species it
o
is
always a property of something else
·
Contray
attributes are the maximum difference and hold between two extreme
[http://www.philosophie.hu-berlin.de/institut/lehrbereiche/antike/mitarbeiter/menn/texte/ig2a]
Book 11 Kappa: Summary of the being and
becoming
·
Some
scholars doubt Aristotle was the author
·
Repeats
concepts from Physics or in earlier books of the Metaphysics.
Book 12 Lambda Theology, the Prime Mover and God(s)
·
Three
kinds of substance:
o
perceptible
substances: perishable or imperishable
§
subject
of natural science
o
substance
that is immune to change
§
subject
of logic and mathematics.
·
Theology
investigates the question of whether there is some common source to all
substance, and Aristotle identifies this common source as a divine “prime
mover.”
·
This
eternal substance has no potentiality, but only actuality, and its perpetual
actuality makes the world eternal as well. This eternal substance must also be
the prime mover, the source of all movement and change in the cosmos. To be the
primer mover, this substance must itself be unmoving.
·
Vacillates
between a single or multiple prime movers.
Books 13 Mu and 14 Nu: Philosophy of mathematics, how
numbers exist
·
Mathematical
entities are not substances
·
Numbers
are physical objects considered in abstraction from their physical and
accidental properties
·
Disagrees
with Plato’s view that each number corresponds to a Form
SOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:
·
Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle’s
Metaphysics.
·
Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle:
Metaphysics.
APPLICATIONS TO BIOMEDICINE
Outside of
philosophy circles, Aristotle’s
metaphysics principles are
often applied in bioethics – specifically surrounding the use and destruction
of embryos and stem cells. Below are a section of articles that employ
metaphysical principles.
·
Morgan, L. M. (2013). The potentiality
principle from Aristotle to abortion. Current
Anthropology, 54(S7),
S15-S25.
·
Mosteller,
T. (2005). Aristotle and headless clones. Theoretical medicine and bioethics,
26(4), 339-350.
· Watt, H. (2007). Embryos and
pseudoembryos: parthenotes, reprogrammed oocytes and headless clones. Journal
of medical ethics, 33(9), 554-556.
Another metaphysical
principle applied to biomedicine is causation.
·
Sunday, J., Eyles, J., & Upshur, R.
(2001). Applying Aristotle's doctrine of causation to Aboriginal and biomedical
understandings of diabetes. Culture,
medicine and psychiatry, 25(1),
63-85.
·
Wildner, M. (2000). Aristotle and the
human genome project. The Lancet,
356(9238), 1360.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
·
In your opinion
what makes humans human – in other words – what qualities are inherent to our
species and unique from all others? What is the essence of our being?
o
What makes
something an embryo versus a clump of cells (Watt, 2007; Morgan 2013)?
o
Are (how are?)
humans more than the just the result of their genetic material (Wildner, 2000)?
·
More mundane –
what makes a thing a thing?
·
How do different
interpretations of causation influence behavior? (Sunday, 2001)
·
Which of the
book beta questions strike you are particularly relevant to your field of
study?
·
Do you connect
with Aristotle’s approach of categorization?
·
Using the
categories and criteria from Metaphysics where do you weigh in on the ethics of
therapeutic cloning (Mosteller, 2005)?
